Curiosity makes a leader

Teleperformance Philippines leaders recently shared their expertise on talent and leadership development in the Contact Center Association of the Philippines’ (CCAP) the GenNext Leadership Forum and Team Leader Summit held in Taguig and in Cebu.

In the conference’s Manila leg, Teleperformance Philippines’ Director for Learning and Development Olive Ybañez joined a panel of industry professionals to discuss how professionals can transition to leadership roles. Meanwhile, in the Cebu leg, vice president for operations Toni Tompar shared insights on the topic “Leadership in the Age of Disruption.”

Curiosity, according to Ybañez, plays an important role in an employee’s leadership journey. “Being able to say ‘There’s something that I might not know and I need to find the people who can help me’ plays a vital role in how much growth and development a person can accomplish when they take on a leadership role.”

A leader with a healthy dose of curiosity for the world would also have a healthy attitude towards change, said Ybañez. To be an agile learner, one must always be curious enough to learn new things to update their skills and knowledge in order keep up with the changes in the industry.

“You will see in your organization that the people who shine are those who learn fast and often times those who learn before they need to use it,” she said.

With the speed of changes that the global industry undergoes, Ybañez also emphasized the importance of learning agility. “Change is always happening, even more so now. That is why learning agility has never been more important. Clients have their own way of doing things and may be using new technology. Learning agility will keep you on top of all these changes,” Ybañez said.